I have come across this selection before and I enjoyed re-reading it for this class. I find it to be a pretty enjoyable read. The narrator, Gurov, is an interesting character. He sees women as inferior to men, yet he can't help being amused by their company. He almost seems ignorant when it comes to emotions with women because he doesn't seem to understand the struggles Anna is going through due to their affair, in fact he even says her reaction bores him! However, something must have changed his mind at least a little bit because once Anna is gone Gurov realizes something is missing from his life, that missing piece being love. This love between Gurov and Anna is like a forbidden love because they are both married already and so the idea of them being together is scandalous. They don't let that stop them and the story ends leaving us to believe that they are going to figure out a way to be with each other forever. Another aspect I would like to mention is the color grey that continually pops up throughout the story. Particularly at the end he realizes that his hair has gone grey. In my mind it symbolizes the fact that Gurov and Anna are done pretending, they are going to let go of their old lives and start a new one in which they are free to love each other openly. Then again they don't have the power to turn back time and live a whole other lifetime, so I feel it could also symbolize their previous love life dying with them and they will love each other beyond death.
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